Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Donabe Shio-koji Yude-buta (simmered pork block)


This is a very simple and very simple dish.
I got a block of pork butt (shoulder) meat and marinated it with my homemade shio-koji (if you don't have shio-koji, you can season it simply with salt, although the depth of flavor will be different) for overnight.

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The marinated pork was combined with sake, water, Tokyo negi (green onion), garlic, ginger, and black peppercorns in my classic-style donabe, "Hakeme". And, it was simmered for 1 hour and rested for another hour.

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(Additional note) For up to 2 pounds of meat, soup & stew donabe, "Miso-shiru Nabe", would be a perfect-size donabe and can give even slower cooling down time.

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Juicy pork was simply sliced and served with sauce (made from the reserved cooking liquid, sake, sugar, and soy sauce) and condiments. Righteous! Shio-koji makes the pork taste even deeper and more tender.

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The next day, I reheated the leftover pork in the oven and cut into cubes to serve. With the marinated "aji-tama" boiled eggs, the pork tasted really nice, too.

I posted the full recipe on toiro's website, so please check it out.
Also, the cooking broth tastes really gorgeous. You can serve it as a soup on the side, or use it to cook rice, stew, etc.

Happy donabe life.